Have a Mindful 2021! (book review)

I don’t believe in the New Year New Me resolutions – true, January is the month of beginnings, so it’s easier to start something new, but it’s no use deciding to change everything. Naturally, I have some goals I want to achieve this year – things that will bring me closer to taking over the world – but apart from goal-setting I want to spend this year more mindfully.

If I were to name three concepts that turned out to be the most important in my professional life in 2020, that would be storytelling, Design Thinking and mindfulness. I honestly believe it was mindfulness that saved my sanity last year – short and simple activities that I shared with you. I also recommended a great book, 100 Ideas for Primary Teachers: Mindfulness in the Classroom, that you can use in the classroom.

This January I’m planning to continue my mindful journey with yet another book that I want to share with you. The book I’m planning to talk about is Everyday Mindfulness, written by Melissa Steginus.

Book organization

They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but you can easily do this by its organization! Everyday Mindfulness is organized neatly – there are six chapters, each focusing on the specific area of mindfulness:

• physical
• emotional
• rational
• spiritual
• occupation
• network

The whole idea of the book is based on a journey – there are 108 activities for 108 days, each day helping you understand yourself better. Each activity is divided into three parts:

• purpose: why we should engage in this activity
• practice: how to carry out the activity
• reflection: questions that will help us focus on the moment of mindfulness

What I really like, is that there is an extra online component available on the author’s website with a workbook for each chapter. You can download the workbook as it’s free to use and that will help you reflect on the journey.

Content

Why do I use the expression journey? Because the first section of the book, How to Use the Book, makes it clear: you are to embark on a 108-day long journey to achieve better understanding of your self-empowerment, fulfilment and transformation.

Each day has one mindful activity to do and reflect on – some of them seem quite simple (Day 3: Make and eat breakfast), some seem quite challenging (Day 37: Begin unplugged), but they all are connected with the everyday life – and I think that’s the best thing about this book. You won’t have to visualize your perfect holidays while breathing in for 5 seconds and breathing out for 7 seconds. You want to be more mindful? Go and declutter your space (Day 18, one of my favourites) or check your schedule (Day 80, awesome stuff).

I really appreciate mindfulness brought down to what’s mundane and common. It makes me feel that I don’t have to spend extra time to understand myself better, on the contrary, it shows me I can understand myself better through my routine.

Recommendations

I really like this book and am going to use it – so should you, if you:

• are quite busy with your life
• would like to learn how to listen to your body and trust your feelings
• want to manage your time and energy to set and complete your priorities
• deepen your relationships

It’s a simple book full of ready-to-go activities that you will find relatively easy to follow and achieve a greater insight into yourself.

Steginus, Melissa: Everyday Mindfulness

TCK Publishing, 2020

ISBN: 1631610821

I received a copy of this book from the publisher, TCK Publishing, in exchange for an honest an unbiased review.